The present invention relates to preceding vehicle following control technique for controlling a vehicle spacing or distance from a controlled vehicle to a preceding vehicle.
A Japanese Patent Kokai Publication No. H7(1995)-47862 shows a conventional vehicle following control system.
When set by a driver, a preceding vehicle following control system of earlier technology controls a vehicle spacing or distance to a preceding vehicle at a desirable value in the presence of a preceding vehicle, and controls the vehicle speed at a preset vehicle speed in the absence of a preceding vehicle. The following control is canceled in response to a driver's depression on a brake pedal, a driver's accelerating operation on an accelerator pedal, or a driver's shift operation. A main objective of the following control is to reduce the burden on a driver in high speed operations. There is a further demand for an automatic system for low speed operations and for controlling stop and restart of a vehicle automatically.